Angelica Araya signals for traffic to stop so she and other toll collectors can change shifts at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, January 28, 2011. Starting in 2012, the bridge will no longer be using toll takers and will move to an all-electronic system.

A driver tries to retrieve his wallet in the trunk of his car to pay the $6 cash toll to Jacquie Dean (right), a toll taker at the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

A driver tries to retrieve his wallet in the trunk of his car to...

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Toll takers switch shifts at the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012. Toll takers' jobs will be eliminated when the upcoming transition to an all-automated toll collection system takes effect.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Toll takers switch shifts at the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza in...

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A toll collector in lane one of the Golden Gate Bridge smiled after he talked to a driver Sunday February 19, 2012. Toll collectors, like these at the Golden Gate Bridge, may be replaced by electronic/automated toll collection in the future.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

A toll collector in lane one of the Golden Gate Bridge smiled after...

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Ben Ramirez waits for cars while working as a toll collector at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, January 28, 2011.

Photo: Laura Morton, Special To The Chronicle

Ben Ramirez waits for cars while working as a toll collector at the...

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Ben Ramirez collects a toll from a motorist while working at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, January 28, 2011.

Photo: Laura Morton, Special To The Chronicle

Ben Ramirez collects a toll from a motorist while working at the...

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Mahealani Luafalemana, on vacation from Hawaii, snaps a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge in front of the toll plaza in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, January 28, 2011.

Photo: Laura Morton, Special To The Chronicle

Mahealani Luafalemana, on vacation from Hawaii, snaps a photo of...

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Angela Adams collects a toll from a motorist while working as a toll collector at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, January 10, 2011.

The future will arrive, under the cover of darkness, at the Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday morning, though drivers probably won't notice anything unusual other than a preponderance of TV trucks.

At about 5 a.m., the bridge district plans to switch on its new all-electronic toll-collection system, which will eliminate toll collectors when it's fully implemented in March. For now, though, toll takers will coexist with the high-tech equipment as the Golden Gate tests the state's first human-free, cash-free toll-taking operation on a bridge.

"This is getting real," said Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the bridge district. "This is a big milestone in the bridge's history, and we're 60 days away from it becoming reality."

Drivers shouldn't notice anything different for the next couple of months, Currie said, except that motorists who blow through the FasTrak lane without a transponder will receive a toll invoice instead of a citation. But toll collectors will still staff the toll booths during the test period.

When the toll collectors vanish in March, tolls will be collected via FasTrak transponders or a video system that captures the license plates of cars that pass through the toll plaza. Drivers will then have the option of setting up license plate accounts or making one-time payments online or at kiosks in retail stores around the Bay Area. Those who don't take advantage of any of those options - confused tourists, for instance - will be mailed invoices instead of citations and fines.

"So when they return home to Texas or Kansas, they'll have an invoice," Currie said. "It's a gentler approach to collecting tolls."

Except, of course, for the 28 toll collectors who will be replaced by technology. About half of them have either been placed in other jobs at the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, or voluntarily resigned. The district is still trying to find places for the remaining 14, who will be given severance packages if they're not placed in other jobs, Currie said.

"The downside is that this is the end of their careers for the toll collectors," she said.

The upside, and the reason the district's directors voted for the automated system in 2011, is to save money. Although the system will cost $3.2 million to install and test, it is expected to save $19 million over the next eight years and help chip away at the district's projected $89 million five-year budget shortfall.

During the next two months, bridge employees and tolling technicians will help test the system by driving through the toll plaza with different types of accounts. The cash-payment network isn't expected to begin operation until late February, when the district will begin the final push toward going all electronic.

"We've got to test all these things in a live environment and make sure it's all working," said Currie. "We're anticipating that it's going to go well."

Toll options

Drivers don't need to make any changes yet, but anyone who wants to open a license plate account or try the new one-time payment system can get instructions at goldengate.org/tolls.